On the afternoon of Dec.23rd 2011, Dr. Stephan Rothlin, Secretary General of the Center for International Business Ethics (CIBE), visited the CIBE’s Senior Advisor—Prof. Lou Yulie, who is a PhD tutor in the Philosophy Department and the Religion Department of Peking University, as well as a PhD tutor of the Institute of Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture at Peking University, devoting himself into the teaching and research of Chinese philosophy history and Buddhism history.

Dr. Rothlin made a brief introduction of CIBE’s achievement in 2011. Prof. Lou indicated that it’s very important for CIBE to spread the concept of business ethics. Most different from the western worldview of worshiping laws, China’s society is ruled by both the interior morality and the external rule of law; therefore, this will have an impressive effect on China’s sustainable development by exploring practical and instructive parts in traditional philosophy of ethics, reinterpreting and promoting these ethics.

When talking about business ethics, Prof. Lou emphasized that we should interpret Chinese traditional responsibilities within this new background. To a company this means producing qualified products; to the managers of a company this means guaranteeing sound corporate operations; to the staff members this means completing assignments perfectly. So are the analogies to families and society.

Prof. Lou considered that Chinese culture is known for all-inclusiveness. Taking the Symposium on Sino-European Culture Exchange and Applied Ethics held by CIBE in May 2011 as an example, both Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall von Bell are welcomed as long as they are peaceful minded in promoting their culture. Buddhism in China is a case of cross cultural communication of Eastern and Chinese points of view. So far, lots of Chinese words are directly transliterated from ancient Indian words.  The moment they absorb the Chinese culture, the foreign cultures go into the Chinese society and become part of Chinese Culture. So when we learn from each other, keeping our own characters must be minded in heart.

In the end, Prof. Lou encouraged the Center to further related activities and to promote business ethics that are recognized by the whole corporate or social organizations, making a contribution to the economic sustainable development and social stability.